Saints Sweep Past the Lions, Mostly by Going Over Them

Drew Brees, who dived for a first down in the third quarter on fourth-and-inches, threw for 466 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Lions.Credit
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

NEW ORLEANS — The contest late Saturday in the Superdome was less an N.F.L. playoff game than a testament to offensive football and its value, which has never seemed higher than this season.

The New Orleans Saints and the Detroit Lions, it should be noted, did play defense against each other. It just never seemed that way during the Saints’ 45-28 victory. Instead, watching this game was like watching tennis, head moving right, then left, back and forth, but slower, as both offenses took turns marching down the field.

Despite a pair of fumbles, the Saints moved the ball at will, with the kind of panache and precision that reverberates across the league. Afterward, some Saints even suggested what once seemed improbable: that this offense is better than the one that carried New Orleans to a Super Bowl championship two years ago.

When receiver Robert Meachem hauled in a 56-yard game-sealing score late in the fourth quarter, fittingly there was no defender within 20 yards of him. In the Saints’ triumph, in which they set an N.F.L. playoff record with 626 yards and both teams combined for an N.F.L. postseason-best 839 net passing yards, even the defenses were offensive.

At the lectern afterward, Coach Sean Payton did not so much as crack a smile. He cut off an inevitable question about breaking another offensive record, his voice rushed. “We’re just focused on winning,” he said. “We’re not focused on yards or records.”

New Orleans will play next week at San Francisco, a team that reinvented the passing offense in the 1980s but is known for its defense now. The Saints’ offense, which also gained 617 yards in its regular-season finale, is likely to be tested, outdoors and on the road and in the wind. Even if the events on Saturday did not provide that sort of implication.

This game featured two teams that fancy passing. In the modern N.F.L., in which top-seeded New England and Green Bay boast the two most prolific offenses, Detroit and New Orleans have also bolstered the trend toward explosive offense, one completion at a time.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees set league records for passing yards (5,476) and completion percentage (71.6) this season. Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford joined him in the 5,000-yard-plus club with 5,038.

The teams’ meeting Saturday marked the first time two such club members met in the playoffs. This, too, caught the attention of the oddsmakers, who set the over-under at 59, the highest ever for the postseason in which the maxim “defense wins championships” never changes.

The Saints, 13-3 yet seeded third, without a bye, entered the contest as a trendy pick to win the Super Bowl. They won their final eight games before the playoffs, went undefeated at home and topped the Lions, 31-17, about a month ago.

So it figured the teams would combine for a million points and an infinite amount of yards — which is pretty much what happened, give or take a yard or two.

The deluge of offense started early, as expected. Detroit needed only four minutes to score. Stafford passed for 70 yards on the drive, finding tight end Will Heller for a 10-yard touchdown that briefly silenced the sold-out crowd, which had roared so loudly that the Superdome shook.

This marked the Lions’ first lead in a playoff game since 1994, an even longer drought than the one to their last postseason foray in 1999.

Photo

Even with three Saints defensive players surrounding him, the Lions' Calvin Johnson managed to catch the ball.Credit
Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

The Saints moved the ball with similar ease, until receiver Marques Colston fumbled and linebacker Justin Durant recovered for Detroit. New Orleans resumed its season-long scoring spree on its next possession, though, covering 89 yards with the speed of an express train. When running back Darren Sproles shifted left, away from a wall of Lions defenders and into the end zone for a 2-yard score, he tied the game at 7-7.

The game continued in this fashion, more proof, perhaps, of the shifting landscape in the N.F.L. This was not old-school football, not 3 yards and a cloud of dust. This was flag football played in shoulder pads, or video-game football brought to life. One interruption to the narrative — offense, offense, offense — came from the Saints, who fumbled twice in the first half, as Detroit took a 14-7 lead on a back shoulder Calvin Johnson (12 catches, 211 yards) touchdown catch.

The halftime score — 14-10 after the Saints kicked a field goal — was misleading, if only because it was so low. By then, the teams had accumulated 353 passing yards and 466 yards over all. Collectively, Brees and Stafford amassed 31 completions. The Saints even gained 83 yards on the ground.

Early into the third quarter, the Saints’ halftime adjustment seemed obvious: throw deep. On a pair of touchdown drives, Brees connected on two passes longer than 40 yards and had another throw of similar length dropped. The first went to Devery Henderson for a 41-yard gain that ended in the end zone. The second, a 40-yard strike to Colston, set up a touchdown toss to Jimmy Graham that extended the Saints’ lead to 24-14.

That lasted for all of a few minutes. Stafford, feeling left out in the deep-ball department, lobbed a 42-yard pass into Johnson’s waiting hands. Stafford punctuated the drive with a scramble to the right front corner of the end zone, extending toward the pylon for a score officials upheld upon review.

It was the Saints, though, who scored 35 points after halftime, who played offense the way the Beatles played music, masterfully. In case that point had not been driven home, Brees and Meachem connected on another late long ball, which gave Brees 466 passing yards.

This helped to erase the memory that lingered from last season, when New Orleans traveled to Seattle and fell to the first team to make the playoffs with a losing record. On Saturday morning, cornerback Jabari Greer saw Matt Hasselbeck, last year a Seahawks quarterback, on television. The memories, which Greer helped erase with two interceptions, came flooding back.

Soon enough, they were replaced with a flood of offense.

The Saints never even punted.

Correction: January 15, 2012

An article in some editions last Sunday about the New Orleans Saints’ 45-28 victory over the Detroit Lions in the N.F.L. playoffs, which helped erase the memory of the Saints’ playoff loss at Seattle last season, misidentified the position of Matt Hasselbeck, who played for the Seahawks in last year’s game. He is a quarterback, not a cornerback.

A version of this article appears in print on January 8, 2012, on page SP1 of the New York edition with the headline: Saints Sweep Past the Lions, Mostly by Going Over Them. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe